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After reading posts here following the Broncos game there was a load of anti-McDaniels comments. I didnt see the Broncos game, but i did see the Bengals match and obviously scoring 38 points doesnt indicate much offensive problems. So i was wondering what you guys thought the difference was. Did McDaniels change the plays massively from a week ago, or were the matchups just alot more favourable for our receivers and backs? Am just trying to figure out what the difference is between a good play call and bad play call, apart from the obvious number of yards gained.
Cheers.

I don't have any stats to prove or disprove any theories, but I do think it has more to do with matchups and timing than anything else. When we played Denver, we were coming off 2 wins that didn't show any chemistry between Tom and his new receivers who probably were still trying to learn the NE playbook plus routes, etc. Then you have Denver's great run defense which was able to stuff Maroney while Dillon was semi-inactive after a few plays and the Pats were forced to rely totally on Tom and the air attack. Champ Bailey is widely known as a shutdown corner so your option throwing anywhere near him is dangerous(last year for example), so all Denver had to do was contain Brady and play zone and NE is essentially neutralized whether or not you have a great gameplan.
Coming off that loss, Tom and his receivers got another week to work out their timing and routes, the vets probably rejuvenated the team because they ARE Patriots and Patriots don't lay down and die, and everyone outside the team thought they were going to lose and it may have sparked something . Then you have the Bengals bad run D, Chris Henry disrupting some of the gameplans Marvin probably wanted to utilize, and Tom probably pissed at everyone talking about his goddamn body language, it all adds up.

Denver out-adapted the Pats. E.g., the Pats had one great drive in the fourth quarter, but went helplessly 3-and-out the next series with a defensive change (I don't know what it was) that Brady couldn't diagnose in time. Also, the Pats for whatever reason couldn't physically beat up the Denver defense the way they did Cincy's, maybe because Denver was so fast/quick it didn't stick around to get pounded.

We were expecting the blitz-a-thon we saw from Denver twice last year, and didn't get it. We were prepared to do more screens and run the ball to neutralize the blitz but they were prepared for it.

If we see the Broncos in the playoffs again, I guarantee we'll see the biggest blitz-a-thon ever because I know Shanahan will not blitz heavily for the rest of the year to set that gameplan up. He'll figure we'll try to attack more through the air. If you think I'm crazy to think that, look at the Broncos' first 2 games- the offense played dead to set us up for Week 3.

We were expecting the blitz-a-thon we saw from Denver twice last year, and didn't get it. We were prepared to do more screens and run the ball to neutralize the blitz but they were prepared for it.

If we see the Broncos in the playoffs again, I guarantee we'll see the biggest blitz-a-thon ever because I know Shanahan will not blitz heavily for the rest of the year to set that gameplan up. He'll figure we'll try to attack more through the air. If you think I'm crazy to think that, look at the Broncos' first 2 games- the offense played dead to set us up for Week 3.

Just remember that Shanahan will ALWAYS try and set us up!

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That sums it up. Good Points. Shanahan is a smart cookie.
Their offense is pretty predictable...their defense IS better than Cincy's.
Denver has some very good LB's that match up well against our offensive weapons.
Shanahan is one of the best in the league and he probably knows we'll be meeting later in the year again.

Matchups. This is what I have said about Denver since that game (I say "since" because I was blinded by my desire for revenge to have seen it earlier)

Denver is just a bad matchup for NE. The have good CBs that can cover any of NE's WRs 1:1, particularly with Jackson and Gabriel at less than full strength, as well as fast LBs that can cover NE's TEs. Because of this, they felt perfectly comfortable using at least one, and sometimes both safeties in the box to stop the run. Denver had at least a one man advantage vs. the number of NE blockers in nearly every running play. It was up to NE to prove they could beat Denver with the pass, but they never could because of the diminished weapons, the lack of timing and the previously stated quality corners.

In addition to that, Denver is a fast defense that misses few tackles. Dillon was a much better RB to use in that situation, but he went out early.

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The playcalling wasn't very good vs. Denver and NE stayed in their gameplan a little too long, but it was really the matchup that determined the outcome. It was a perfect convergence of events; Dillon hurt, passing game still not together, down the eventual top two WRs for the first 2.5 quarters.

Stop blame the coach...the difference between a good coach and a bad is all execution which falls squarly on the players shoulder.

1)Brady getting more used to his new staff.Some of the pass where still shaky but as i have been saying week 6 will be close to a good raport then now.
2)Dillion playing the whole game.Inspite of all the complaint when dillion plays he moves the ball even in a full clogged pile he will give you 2-3 yrds.making 3rd downs low yrd situations.
3)Defence was given better breathing space keeping them fresh at the 4th quater surge .3 and out kills defences stamina.
4)Denver was a good team but i still believe we had holes they exploited .If brady had moved the chain we would have won.
5)Shannan is to offensive what BB is to defence.Also , the statement defences wins champsionships make makes more sense looking at the recent sb success.

Corey Dillon didn't play the whole game vs. Denver, and Maroney wasn't ready to be the lone back against a good defense.

Denver shut down our running game, leaving the passing game to sustain itself, which it was not ready to do.

The Bengals couldn't stop the run, and couldn't stop the pass because they were too intent on trying to stop the run. This has to do with Corey Dillon playing in addition to Maroney.

On top of that, the better Defense of Denver made our OL look bad. The Bengal defense made our OL look dominant. I think the truth is somewhere between the two, but the Bengals D could not stop those guys.

On top of all of that was the way our defense played. Alot of factors went into what changed (stationary QB vs mobile QB, power back vs slashing back, OL blocking schemes, the actual OLs playing for each team), but either way our D played better vs Cincy than against Denver. They forced turnovers, held the Bengals to FGs early instead of giving up TDs, and stopped the run alot better than against Denver.

I think it goes unsaid how well our D has been playing against Denver lately. Any other year (or week) 17 points was easy for the offense. That fluke TD buried us though. That's what Denver's real success against us has come from- making big plays. Even our close-shave win in '03 was almost not b/c of that punt return TD. Denver always seems to make a big play to break the game open (Bell, Smith, Lelie, Bailey all did it last year in our contests).

If their is a playoff rematch, we will have to stop the big play because Shanahan is an aggressive-playcaller and doesn't necessarily like to "move the chains" like we do.

As for our performance against Denver's D, something has to change. Want to see some scary numbers? 3, 3, 0 - those are our point totals in the first half of the last 3 meetings. We absolutely must score 10 in the first half if we want to win.

They stuck with the gameplan because it's the only one that will work for this offense at this point in the season. You can't go pass whacky with these players yet.

The passing game, when trying to sustain itself, is inconsistent as one would expect with 1 returning WR. Later in the season you may see a pass heavy offense in the situations that call for it, but with CD and LM back there, the running game is always going to be a heavy part of our weekly gameplan.

They stuck with the gameplan because it's the only one that will work for this offense at this point in the season. You can't go pass whacky with these players yet.

The passing game, when trying to sustain itself, is inconsistent as one would expect with 1 returning WR. Later in the season you may see a pass heavy offense in the situations that call for it, but with CD and LM back there, the running game is always going to be a heavy part of our weekly gameplan.

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Yeah, I thought my post insinuated this point. It seemed to me that the coaching staff went into the game saying "this is what we will do. If they stop us, so be it. It's only one loss" I still think they should have tried to go hurry up, because it was clearly the only option left pretty early in the second half. But with a few guys missing, and only Brown really being in synch, it's understandable why they did what they did.